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Thread: Advice??

  1. #1
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    Advice??

    Hey everyone. I'm having issues with my Ball pythons and eating. Yes I know this is a common thing, but for the first time, I'm actually stumped. I have 5 Ball pythons of various ages, from 1-9 years old. I have 3 that have always been very picky eaters, and 2 that always eat, no matter what. They have always been kept in a room in the basement where I can control the temperature easily.
    I recently moved them to the next room over, which is smaller, and now none of them are eating except my little aggressive phantom male baby. It's been 5 weeks now.
    The ambient temperature is pretty steady, and the hot spots are bang on. Only difference is a new room.
    It's quiet, warm, and I don't know what else to try. I did notice that they seem to come out and are always searching around the tank a lot. And I mean a lot. They seem interested when I present the rat or mouse, but won't strike. I've earned the rodents, tried feeding at night, and I'm running out of ideas.
    They are housed in various cages. Front opening ExoTerra tanks. Should I move them to tubs? The humidity is also pretty good at 40-60%
    Any ideas would be helpful. I've scoured the internet for ideas but I feel like I've tried most of those.
    Thanks ☺️

  2. #2
    BPnet Senior Member GoingPostal's Avatar
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    Going to need more info, we have no idea what your animals were eating previously, how often you are offering, etc. Actual temp numbers, with a temp gun, for cool side, hot side and ambient? Does this room have more activity or noise or anything going on?

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  3. #3
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    Re: Advice??

    Ok, they are all various sizes so I didn't say what each was specifically eating as I kind of thought the fact that they all stopped eating might be something more environment based.
    They were all eating once a week for the most part. My 2 smaller ones were eating small f/t rats, one on medium f/t rats, and my two bigger pythons were also eating medium sized f/t rats.
    The room actually sees almost no activity except for myself as it is a dedicated snake room. The ambient air in the room is 79F and each hot spot is controlled by a thermostat and maintained at 95-96F. I check very often with a laser heat gun and it's pretty much exact.
    I have a room humidifier that is holding the room at about 55%
    A timer for the room lights, so the day/night cycle is steady.

  4. #4
    BPnet Senior Member GoingPostal's Avatar
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    A couple of things, your hot spot is hot! Drop that to 90 max, I usually leave mine around 88. That might be the issue right there and likely why they are moving around a lot. Feeding I asked because it sounds also like you may be overfeeding some of them. An adult ball python should not be eating weekly. My adult male gets a small rat every 2-3 weeks for example. My adult short tail pythons get medium rats once a month.

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